Reef Fish Identification – Tropical Pacific

New World Publications announces a new, updated and enlarged 2nd edition of Reef Fish Identification – Tropical Pacific (first released in 2003). The book features more than 200 additional species, hundreds of improved photos, scientific name changes and range extensions. The popular field guide contains the most current and comprehensive information available for divers, naturalists and aquarists chronicling marine fishes ranging from Thailand to Tahiti.

The new edition includes 2,000 species with 2,500 photographs of fishes in their natural habitat. The user-friendly guide groups species in 20 color-coded identification groups based on similar physical or behavioral characteristics. Multiple photographs for many species show variations in color and markings, life cycle phases and gender. Accompanying species accounts include common and scientific names, family, size, visual descriptions, geographical ranges and distinctive characteristics, making the visual identification of a particular species easier than ever before.

The four author/photographers are among the best in the business. Dr. Gerald Allen, from Perth Australia, has authored more than 30 books and 300 scientific articles. The retired Senior Curator of Fishes worked at the Western Australian Museum for 25 years. Dr. Allen’s authoritative expertise is augmented with images from three of the best-known underwater photographers in the world. Roger Steene, a lifelong resident of Cairns, Australia, and the author of many of the most beautiful undersea books ever published, has been on the cutting edge of marine photography for 50 years. Paul Humann and Ned DeLoach, owners of New World Publications and founders of REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation), have photographed, authored and published more than a dozen field guides for marine life around the world.

To order, go to New World Publications.

Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific

Three leading scientific experts on nudibranchs and sea slugs collaborate to produce a comprehensive guide for divers to the Indo-Pacific region. Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens previously worked together on the 2008 publication of Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs and Sea Slugs. The new book Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification - Indo-Pacific is an improved version of that work, including more than 500 additional photos and species.

The Indo-Pacific represents the largest expanse of tropical ocean in the world, stretching from the Indian Ocean coast of southern Africa and the Red Sea to the central Pacific of the Hawaiian Islands, Easter Island and the Marquesas. This region supports the most diverse marine fauna of any place in the world for most groups of organisms. The opisthobranchs (nudibranchs and other sea slugs) are no exception to this rule. There are about 3,000 described species of opisthobranchs in the world and at least 40 percent of these have been found exclusively in the Indo-Pacific tropics. This book illustrates 1,953 Indo-Pacific opisthobranchs, including many undescribed species.

With the evolution of chemical defenses and the loss of the shell, came the evolution of the bright color patterns that are the signature of nudibranch diversity; vivid colors advertise the presence of toxicity or distastefulness. Other species went down the track of being cryptic, blending in with their surroundings and some evolved amazing strategies of resembling their specific prey. All of this beauty and color is on full display in 2,248 photographs on 408 pages.

To order, go to New World Publications.